South Bay Galleria’s mixed-use plans include hotel residential and office construction
A rendering of the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of Redondo Beach’s South Bay Galleria. The project and its four alternatives, listed in a recently-released Draft Environmental Impact Report, could add from 298 to 650 new apartments and would redevelop the mall into an outdoor gathering space. Rendering courtesy Forest City Enterprises.
Seven days prior to the November 8, 1960 United States presidential election, candidate John F. Kennedy chose the South Bay Shopping Center for his Los Angeles County campaign rally.
“This is a deadly struggle in which we are engaged and we can’t afford to be second best. We can’t afford to be second best in outer space,” the candidate told the thousands of supporters who filled the parking lot facing Hawthorne Boulevard. At his side were California Governor Pat Brown and South Bay Congressional Representative Cecil King, after whom Redondo Beach’s new harbor would be named.
South Bay Center had opened just three years earlier. With a four-story May Company department store as its anchor, it would reign as the region’s premier shopping center through the end of the Kennedy era. Its decline began with the 1971 opening of the three million-square-foot Del Amo Shopping center, the then-largest shopping center in the country.
In 1985, the South Bay Center was leveled by owner Forest City to make way for the South Bay Galleria. The new, towering pleasure palace was lit by a skylight that ran the length of the mall and was anchored by Nordstrom. Del Amo, by contrast, had begun its own descent into a bargain destination.
In 2012, the cycle repeated itself. The Galleria lost Nordstrom to Del Amo, which was undertaking a $200 million renovation. Nordstrom’s departure alone cost the Redondo Beach nearly $1 million annually in sales tax revenue.
Now, Forest City is promising to make the Galleria once again a premier shopping destination. Last Friday, Redondo Beach released an environmental impact report on Forest City’s plan to transform the Galleria into a lifestyle center, with new retail, a hotel and residences.
“We don’t want to be ‘Del Amo Lite.’ We think there’s a place for both shopping centers,” said Geoff Maleman, a public relations specialist who has worked with Forest City throughout the planning process.
The primary project proposal calls for up to 224,464 square feet of additional retail, 650 residential units, totaling another 650,000 square feet, and a 150 room hotel.
The draft EIR presents four alternative developments. All include residential and hotel developments and an increase in retail space. Office space is included in some designs, as well.
The 29.82 acre property is identified in the General Plan as having the greatest potential for residential development in Redondo Beach. Its zoning allows for up to 35 residential units per acre, enabling it to satisfy the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocation.
Previous versions of the project presented to the public in small groups showed the residential development on the project area’s western border, along Kingsdale Road. That elicited significant pushback. Kingsdale resident Suzy Royds was motivated to run for City Council, in part due to opposition to the early proposal.
Royds declined to offer her opinion when reached for comment on the Draft EIR, but expressed her discomfort with the Galleria’s plans last year.
“Can you imagine a building taller than the Galleria’s parking structure 50 feet away from my front door, with windows looking into mine and my neighbors’ houses? Who would want to buy my house?” Royds, a real estate agent, said in an interview.
The Galleria’s seven-level parking structure, at its northeast corner, is 70 feet tall. The original project called for an eight-level, 90-foot-tall residential building at the southeast corner of the Galleria’s property.
However, according to Maleman, Forest City believes that Project Alternative 4, titled “Reduced Density, Alternative Residential Location” will satisfy most critics of the development.
Alternative 4 proposes a 65-foot-tall, 300 unit residential building at the project’s east end, adjacent to Hawthorne Boulevard. In place of the original residential building, a three-level, 23- foot-tall parking structure would be built along Kingsdale, attached to a 2 level, 41-foot-tall retail building along its eastern side.
Alternative 4 proposes over 300,000 square feet of residential development, and 1.3 million square feet of retail space. A second version of Alternative 4 would create 50,000 square feet of office space, rather than retail, near Kingsdale.
“We think [Alternative 4] addresses the critical issues we heard,” Maleman said. “You’re never going to make everyone happy, but I think it’s a credit to Forest City that they listened to the public rather than try to shove something in that wasn’t perfect.”
It’s a lesson that seems to be taken from the recent rejection of projects such as CenterCal Properties’ Waterfront, and Legado Redondo, a mixed use proposal at Palos Verdes Drive and Pacific Coast Highway.
“Residents have had a big impact on Forest City’s design, and I applaud them for handling it very differently than CenterCal,” Mayor Bill Brand said. “They’ve taken into account resident input where CenterCal did not, and we saw how they ended up.”
CenterCal’s project is embroiled in lawsuits with the City of Redondo Beach, its erstwhile development partner. Resident pushback against that project resulted in voter passage of Measure C, which redrew harbor-area zoning, with the intent of preventing CenterCal’s plan from going forward. The Waterfront project will be brought before the California Coastal Commission for review later this year.
Presently, the greatest challenge to the Galleria project is the public’s concern about increased traffic. Traffic calculations estimate that the 650-units would add approximately 8,020 daily car trips to the area. Currently, the Galleria generates 24,595 daily car trips.
The draft EIR also studied 32 intersections in the area, including 19 in Redondo Beach.
Inglewood Avenue, Hawthorne Boulevard and Redondo Beach Boulevard would all face significantly increased traffic volumes at their intersections with Artesia Boulevard, according to the report.
To mitigate the increased traffic load, the Draft EIR analysis recommends that the three intersections be restriped to create additional through-lanes from dedicated right-turn lanes. Additional mitigations are recommended for the intersections of Prairie Avenue at Artesia Boulevard, and the I-405 Southbound Ramp at Artesia Boulevard.
However, the intersection of Hawthorne and Artesia, the study says, will still be significantly impacted even with mitigation measures applied.
Activist and Harbor Commissioner Jim Light contends the Draft EIR underestimates traffic impacts.
“The whole mall is underperforming as-is — they’re taking traffic numbers assuming that the mall is performing well and that the new development will perform well,” Light said. “If you want to make impacts look [smaller], you try and get the [change] for trip generation to be [smaller].”
He also expressed concern that analysis for Alternative 4-1 was incomplete, though he believes that alternative to be the best project option because it might keep Redondo’s workforce in town during the day.
“Almost half of Redondo leaves every day to go to work…people who live here don’t work here because there’s a job mismatch for skillsets in our city,” Light said. “[Offices] would be an economic boon to the area, versus housing…which does nothing to help the local economy.”
Other potentially significant environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, construction noise and vibration, and effects on wildlife and geological or paleontological resources, were identified, but determined to be offset by mitigation measures.
“Whatever they’re suggesting [regarding mitigations], we need to look at and ask if that’s something we’re willing to do,” Maleman said. “But from everything I’ve seen so far, we’re absolutely willing to make all of the mitigation efforts.”
Maleman said that Forest City is planning public outreach meetings. The City of Redondo Beach is accepting public comment on the Galleria Draft EIR until Sept. 11, at 5:30 p.m. For information on how to submit feedback, visit redondo.org.